Residents want answers, action after flood woes

Chris Aldridgecaldridge@mdn.net

Updated
9:01 am EDT, Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Peggy Sue Ginter stands in her front yard with her dog, Jesse, as a group from Team Rubicon works to gut the inside of her home, which was severely damaged by recent flooding, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 on Atwell Street near Poseyville Road.

Peggy Sue Ginter stands in her front yard with her dog, Jesse, as a group from Team Rubicon works to gut the inside of her home, which was severely damaged by recent flooding, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 on

Peggy Sue Ginter stands in her front yard with her dog, Jesse, as a group from Team Rubicon works to gut the inside of her home, which was severely damaged by recent flooding, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 on Atwell Street near Poseyville Road.

Peggy Sue Ginter stands in her front yard with her dog, Jesse, as a group from Team Rubicon works to gut the inside of her home, which was severely damaged by recent flooding, on Tuesday, July 11, 2017 on

Using the word “flood” to describe what happened in Midland on June 22 and 23 is a misnomer for some residents.

They made that point clear to their city council members on Monday when unloading impassioned stories of loss not from floods, but alleged insufficient sewer and storm systems that couldn’t handle the more than half a foot of rain that fell in late June, which caused sewage water to flow into their homes.

“We’re getting a little tired of cleaning up the brown residue after the water gets pumped out of our home,” said Christine Miller, who lives on Nakoma Drive.

Miller said she and her husband recently “extensively” remodeled their basement after putting it off for years due to bad memories of floods in 1986, when four feet of sewage water was deposited in her home, and 1989, when 16 inches flowed through.

This time, a foot of sewage water entered the home, she said.

“In a matter of a few hours, we sustained between a $40,000 and $50,000 loss, which is not covered by our insurance because we do not have flood insurance because we are not in the floodplain,” she said. “We’re not going to recover from this loss. We don’t have the funds to redo this. We’re retirees on a fixed income.”

The city “really let down its residents” by not sounding emergency sirens, she said, noting the alarm would have enabled the couple to save “a good amount of things.”

“If those sirens had gone off, at 1, 2, 3 o’clock, we would have had an opportunity, if we heard them, to get up and turn on the news and find out flooding is going on in your area,” Miller said.

Miller said the couple would like to see improvements and upgrades to city infrastructure similar to those made in Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor.

Marilyn Haskins, on Haskin Drive between Perrine Road and Sturgeon Creek Parkway, said she had two feet of water in the basement and the street flooded for two days.

But with water coming up from the drains downstairs, “I wouldn’t consider that a flood,” she said.

Other residents on nearby streets outside the floodplain said they’ve been flooded three to four times and had sewage water in their home. One said he felt the city’s communication was poor and that emergency response was lacking. He requested an emergency after action report.

Council members took notes as many residents demanded answers.

Residents on Whitewood Drive drafted a letter that tells of the city’s long history of sewer water lurching into homes. City officials know of issues there and have been negligent in installing an “appropriate water main and sewer line pumping station” along Waldo Avenue, according to Linda Cislo.

“When we look at our little corner of the city and our beautiful homes in that neighborhood, I’m proud to live there. But I’m worried every time it rains,” said Emily Clayton.

Clayton said the damage at her home was due to sewer backups, not flooding. And though it was only four inches of water that entered her home, which she said isn’t in the floodplain and she does not have a sump pump, “everything had to go.”

Sewer backup insurance covered some damage, but “we’re still cleaning up,” she said.

Clayton echoed Cislo’s call for a pump station to be installed in the area, rather than a city worker with a truck transferring water from one sewer to the other in front of her house after the rains as the water level rose in her basement.

“I don’t want this to happen again,” Clayton said. “I’m sorry that there’s a long history of problems with wastewater management, but perhaps we need to fix the problem once and for all instead of sending guys with trucks and generators to certain neighborhoods. If it means putting it on the ballot for another vote, then lets get the word out and do better now that this flood has affected so many people.”

“And I hate to call it a flood,” she added. “Mine was sewer backup, it wasn’t a flood. Our streets were dry.”

David Shannon said he’s experienced sewage flow into his Whitewood Drive home three times.

“It’s something that needs to be fixed,” he said.

The stories that residents came to City Hall with on Monday “reinforce what we’ve been hearing in our individual wards,” Councilman Steve Arnosky said. He said he hopes the community supports whichever action city council takes in regard to future infrastructure improvements.

“We do recognize that this is something we need to address,” Mayor Maureen Donker said. “We need to make sure we do the right thing the right way. We will work very hard to make that happen.”

“If we’re missing the mark for you,” Donker added, “Please give us a call or an email and we’ll try to respond to you.”

There are about 255 miles of water main and 200 miles of sewer pipe in the city. City Engineer Brian McManus presented a plan to hire a consultant to review and suggest improvements for the sanitary sewer and storm systems.

The city has great staff, he said. But, “We need somebody to guide us through this.”

“We just don’t have the manpower in-house, or the expertise for that matter, to take us through a study like that,” he said.

McManus outlined a potential study concept, starting with reviewing preliminary reports, evaluating city storm and sewer systems and the rain event, looking at past upgrades, and hydraulic modeling and testing. Then a review of conceptual solutions, considering line routing and general sizes, and downstream impacts. Overall cost estimates would follow, then public input, then formation of a basic plan.

By September, the city should know a more defined scope of what the consultant will do and the potential costs, Interim City Manager David Keenan said.

Three areas city leaders said could be a focus: controlling surface water, managing the city’s pipe system, and actions that can be taken by homeowners.

Still, “I think everything’s probably on the table,” McManus said.

He said he had contacted engineering consultants Hubbell, Roth & Clark, which has done mapping and modeling for the city in the past.

Multiple storms, overflows at areas near creeks and an already saturated ground contributed to flooding.

But the leading cause of basement flooding, according to McManus, is home drain tiles that connect to the sanitary system rather than the storm sewer system. Footing tiles can contribute 10 times or more the quantity of rain to the sanitary sewer during a big storm than normal daily activities in a home would — and some 9,100 homes built before 1987 have this setup, he said.